6 Interfaith Rom Coms That Rival ‘Nobody Wants This’

As Valentine’s Day rears its head, we are officially in the season of romance.

In 2024, one of the most popular romantic stories was Netflix’s Nobody Wants This, a series starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody as a couple forced to navigate their interfaith relationship. Adam, who won a Critic’s Choice Award for his performance, plays Noah, who is preparing to take over as the head rabbi at his synagogue. Kristen plays Joanne, a relationship podcaster who identifies as agnostic. Between Noah’s ex-girlfriend and Joanne’s untraditional job, many forces are at play to keep them apart, but their chemistry holds them together. 

The best parts of romantic comedies are often the obstacles couples overcome to end up together. In Nobody Wants This, Noah and Joanne deal with exes and perceptions from family and friends, which is common in the genre. But they’re also faced with a difference in faith and values, a much tougher obstacle to manage because it is innate to who they are. So as we bunker down to find “the one,” we’re highlighting six other interfaith rom-coms to inspire us to seek out love above all obstacles.

Bad Shabbos (2024)

Also in 2024, the Kyra Sedgwick-led Bad Shabbos is a hilarious and unexpected foray into romantic comedies. While the focus isn’t necessarily the film’s interfaith couple, many of the conflicts arise when Abby and Benjamin’s families meet. And if the premise of interfaith parents meeting wasn’t already chaotic enough, Bad Shabbos centers on an unexpected and accidental death. This naturally brings any disagreements and differences in value to the surface, showing through comedy how interfaith couples are often forced to navigate complicated family dynamics.

Liberty Heights (1999)

If one interfaith couple isn’t enough for you, Liberty Heights will scratch your itch. It follows the Kurtzman family, a Jewish family in 1950s Baltimore, as the two sons find love with “forbidden” women. With Barry Levinson’s classic wit and self-aware humor, Liberty Heights is much more poignant than it may appear on the surface. The eldest Kurtzman son, Van, played by Adrien Brody, falls for a gentile girl with a complicated love life. Beyond this, however, his family is unsupportive of him dating someone who isn’t Jewish.

Perhaps even more significant, however, is the younger son’s relationship with Sylvia, an African-American girl. The younger son, Ben, played by Ben Foster, defies both his parents and Sylvia’s parents to be with her. The film is an apt representation of how Jewish and Black communities are at their best when they work together, even when a dominantly white society pits them against each other. Still relevant today, Liberty Heights is funny and tragic at the same time, and the perfect watch for a 2025 Valentine’s Day.

Amira & Sam (2014)

In Amira & Sam, a post-war American soldier named Sam (Martin Starr) meets his Iraqi translator’s niece, Amira (Dina Shihabi) in a 2008 New York City. Amira is an Iraqi refugee who can’t go back to Iraq after her family helped American soldiers, making it too dangerous for her to be there, but she doesn’t yet have legal residency in the United States. In order to evade deportation, she is forced to stay with Sam, and the two eventually fall for one another. However, as the story unfolds, her immigration situation grows more dire in a seeming comedy of errors. Despite its heavy subject matter, Amira & Sam is a funny and charming romantic comedy that’s more relevant than ever in light of 2025 immigration policies.

The Heartbreak Kid (1972)

Perhaps a slight predecessor to Nobody Wants This, The Heartbreak Kid is a classic film lauded by AFI as one of America’s 100 funniest films ever made. Directed by comedic genius Elaine May, it follows the Jewish protagonist, Lenny Cantrow, as he falls for another woman on his honeymoon. After a short courtship, he married Lila Kolodny, a fellow Jew who seems to fit every Jewish stereotype. While on their honeymoon, however, Lenny meets a classic “WASP” — Kelly Corcoran. She’s beautiful, blonde, and indifferent to him … every man’s dream! 

While The Heartbreak Kid was almost entirely created by Jewish filmmakers, critics found that the film’s commentary on idealizing a non-Jewish fed into negative stereotypes. “Why be married to a cloying, unsophisticated, slightly overweight Jewish girl who speaks with a discernible sing-song Jewish intonation (Yiddish influence) when you can perhaps conquer a very Waspy-looking, knockout blonde shiksa type?” Henry Kellerman asked in his 2009 analysis, Greedy, Cowardly and Weak: Hollywood Jewish Stereotypes.

But this all culminates in the film’s final moments, which we won’t spoil — however, similarly to Nobody Wants This, Lenny is forced to reconcile his faith with his feelings as the American Dream of fitting in with the norm compromises his feelings of belonging.

Brooklyn Bridge (1991–1993)

Short-lived but not short in significance, Brooklyn Bridge was a sitcom following a mid-1950s Jewish family living in Brooklyn. With just two seasons under its belt, the show explored the various minutiae of living in the Jewish bubble of Brooklyn, complete with synagogue and Dodgers games. But there are also episodes that examine potential interfaith romances, such as the pilot, “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” which features Jenny Lewis as Alan Silver’s Catholic love interest.

Alex & Eve (2015)

The Australian romantic comedy Alex & Eve tackles an interfaith relationship between a Lebanese Muslim woman, Eve, and a Greek Orthodox man, Alex. After mutual friends introduce Alex and Eve, the two of them hit it off, but knowing they come from different backgrounds provides a whole set of obstacles. Their parents disapprove so much that they arrange for Eve to marry Mohammed, a Lebanese man from overseas. Even still, it’s a rom-com, so we know that love must prevail! But how? It’s almost as dramatic as Nobody Wants This in the end as Alex does everything he can to be with Eve.